Robert Reginald George Appleby

Robert Reginald George Appleby was born at Southwell, Nottinghamshire, on 9 July 1916 and attended Queen Elizabeth School, where he was a prefect and a sportsman, playing cricket and football. Nottinghamshire County Council’s roll of honour records his civilian work as a clerk in engineering costing and gives his family home at New Ollerton. He joined the RAFVR and by 1943 was a pilot officer with No. 35 Squadron, part of the Pathfinder Force.

Appleby’s Distinguished Flying Cross was gazetted in October 1943 after many sorties; the citation singled out an August operation against Berlin carried out with skill and coolness. On 6 January 1944 he was pilot of a 35 Squadron Halifax lost after operations against Stettin. No. 35 Squadron’s own memorial account records the crew’s initial missing status and the later concentration of identified remains from Torgelow to Berlin 1939-1945 War Cemetery, where Appleby is buried. He was 27.